Kentucky, Iowa and Connecticut losses wipe out half the March Madness brackets
CBSN
A trio of unexpected losses during the NCAA March Madness tournament this week have shattered more than half the brackets wagered and frustrated millions of college sports gamblers nationwide.
Most fans who completed a bracket picked the University of Kentucky — a high-achieving college hoops school — to defeat the lesser known Saint Peter's University of New Jersey. Saint Peter's, however, shocked the Kentucky Wildcats in overtime 85-79. Similarly, the University of Richmond beat the heavily favored University of Iowa, while New Mexico State University defeated the University of Connecticut, another elite school for basketball.
More than 101,000 brackets completed using ESPN are worthless now because they selected Iowa and Kentucky for the final championship game, according to data compiled by PlayUSA. ESPN saw more than 17 million brackets completed for this year's March Madness, PlayUSA said, and about 8.8 million of them — or 52% —predicted Kentucky and Iowa would still be in the tournament. Those bets are now moot.
